Monthly Archives: June 2014

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Capital Area/Bis-Man Transit is buying two new buses to replace a couple of 10-year-old workhorses. Bismarck’s mall-centric transit service is modest, but seeing buses running by the State Capitol up to four times an hour has got to rub off on someone eventually.

Winnipeggers will see a huge extra investment in the Southwest Transitway project, with nearly $600 million to be spent extending dedicated busways from the current terminus at Jubilee and Pembina Highway, all the way down to the University of Manitoba. Rapid Transit advocates have been in a pitched tug-of-war over the issue, and Winnipeg’s mayoral race recently heated up with incumbent Sam Katz stepping down, and Transit booster Judy Wasylycia-Leis is leading the pack to replace him.

SkyDancer Resort in Belcourt is officially working alongside new competition today, as Sand Hills Casino opened just 150 km away in Carberry. Western Manitobans no longer have to drive to Winnipeg to gamble without a border check, something sure to cut into SkyDancer’s budget.

Partially to offset the projected losses, the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa recently expressed interest in building a new casino facility in the Grand Forks or the Bakken region, something that would require state legislation, in addition to local community support.

Astrup’s plan would shave the budget by an affordable $12 million, plus provide far better targeting of relief to the elderly fixed income crowd, than what could come out of another haphazard giveaway that almost, but not quite, entirely undoes property taxes.

It’s been over a decade since the halcyon era of KXJB in Fargo — the days when local news meant several choices, not just two or three. Soon even the modest maintenance of a nominal “KXJB” may be gone.

Grey Television meant to buy three full-power TV stations in North Dakota — uncomfortably turning a threadbare triopoly into a duopoly in Western North Dakota, but was rebuffed by an FCC newly obsessed with counteracting decades of media consolidation in the slightly resurgent market for over-the-air TV.

I see a few possible scenarios for how this can go, with only mixed at best results for North Dakota viewers. The worst-case scenario is where we are right now: two TV stations gone and a third on the chopping block. Yay for diverse viewpoints on the air, right? Continue reading →

When polls are thrown for that big of a loop, it can indicate a scenario where voters have shaken confidence in the government — suppressing poll numbers — but are yet more skeptical of the opposition. For his part, PC leader Tim Hudak accepted responsibility for a promising but failed campaign.

Nearby Kenora-Rainy River re-elected the NDP’s Sarah Campbell as MPP; the NDP neither gained nor lost seats, but have lost the balance of power in Canada’s largest province.

Measure 1 is likely to pass, which may kill off some current petition drives, and end the North Dakota State Fair as a political meeting space.

In the city races, Jeannie Schultz-Mock and Crystal Schneider won council seats in Grand Forks, while Mara Brust and John Strand appear to have lost in Fargo.

In the primaries, there appear to have been no major challengers. Republicans outnumbered Democrats 1.5 to 1 (22% gap). Libertarian support is at 1% and the Constitution Party did not contest this election.

KFGO reported people being turned away at the polls, including individuals carrying passports — which is proof of citizenship, as I recall. According to election officials in Grand Forks County, there was no organized effort to count voters who were turned away, despite the significant changes in election rules.

The Secretary of State’s website was inaccessible for periods during the night, as the same system appeared to be hammered by election officers submitting tallies, reporters, and the general public, all at the same time. The poor system design appears to have no low-bandwidth or low-overhead mode for times like this — or any separation between use types. Forum Communications sites posted copious direct links to the SOS pages, exacerbating the service outage.